Let us start with the genres of the country’s popular media, speak something so real- you will be depicted as a rude fellow, say something that is so much truth that you really don’t want it to be that way- congratulations! you’re now an antagonist, the anti-nationalist. Now wake up your mind and ask yourself if you’re going to be in that way, carry the above odd features if you’re famous, successful and an inspirational guru for the budding directors and everyone.
To handle such boldness and face the reality of the world even though you know that you’re going to get stains on your fame and career is quite a GUTSY thing. One really need extreme guts to beat the stereotypical majoritarian side. And here’s the impossible person who acknowledged this aftermath, still took a leap forward standing against the odds, being what he is, and inspiring thousands of budding film directors with his evergreen eccentricity, mannerism and presence of mind, and that is Ram Gopal Verma. If you really hate him for his edgeless comments and tweets, then deal with it. RGV is not simply a name, it is now a trademark of enigma and intriguing curiosity.
Called as Ramu, by his beloved ones, he made his directorial debut with the Tollywood’s game-changer ‘Siva’. He broke records, gave a glimpse of redness to the then existing Tollywood correspondingly presenting a breakthrough to the present prominent actor Akkineni Nagarjuna. Astonishingly, RGV got a Nandi Award for the first movie itself, for which in general, directors struggle for a decade or more ending up with no Nandi award.
In his then started the breakless journey, RGV bagged seven Nandi awards, two Filmfare awards and a National award in between 1989 and 1999. His eccentricity was at its peak stage after the critically acclaimed socio-political movie ‘Shool’. The later ones were mostly experimental genres, such as crime, horror and the slashers.
Now, note it down, who can dare enough to proceed with the experimental genres after achieving so much success within 10 years of career as a director. But, RGV did so. He taught Telugu cinema what actually a slasher movie means, he doubled the adrenaline levels of the viewers with the most unexpected screenplays and whatnot, some people grow old with age, lose their wits and determination. But for RGV, age is like wine, he grows wittier, becomes smarter and younger with passing years.
Now let us take a sneak-peak into the details of Ram Gopal Verma’s timeline, unveil some of the unknown things about this 1962 born, 54-year-old director.
1. Verma did his graduation from Vijayawada’s popular VR Siddhartha college, he then moved to Hyderabad for a business.
2. Started his first renting business, which is renting VCRs along with Video cassettes. He has been arrested once because of pirated copies.
3. Surprisingly, with no experience as an assistant director, Ram Gopal Varma impressed a star actor like Nagarjuna and made his debut with Shiva which ended as a huge hit.
4. Nagarjuna first planned to work with B Gopal for which the story has been spoiled by RGV which brought him the opportunity to direct the film.
5. RGV initially worked as a Mechanical Engineer in Hyderabad. He worked as a site engineer for Taj Krishna which was under construction during that time. He was paid Rs 800 as salary.
6. Verma initially came up with the script of ‘Rathri’, but Nagarjuna was not interested in a horror film and that made RGV come up with Shiva.
8. RGV used to watch every Hollywood movie when he had the video library. He reveals that the impact of Hollywood films has been on him.
9. Ram Gopal Varma is a huge fan of Sridevi and he admires her a lot. He even revealed the news many times during public events. He even added that he came to films only because of Sridevi.